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Mathy question on DK set bonuses and gear item levels

On first drop I was stoked – the tier gear is something that I crave due to the old days when the BiS gear was almost always Tier only, and all the rest of the gear was a poor shadowy reflection of the Tier gear. And the Tier generally was a great looking matched set and transmog was still a gleam in the lead dev’s eye.

I had the pleasure of getting a few Tier tokens from kills (four items in two weeks – DPS LFR Chest and Normal Gloves, and also LFR Chest and Gloves) and now have a ponder-some issue for DPS gear is due to a difference in item level between my current Chest item (489), and the Raid Finder DK set Chest (483).

TLDR = To get the Tier 14 2 set bonus I have to drop the chest item level down 6 item levels. Is the set bonus of +10% damage to key dps abilities better than 6 item levels of stats other stats?

I’m really not sure. It is likely an overall dps loss, but if so by how much? Does that DPS loss become mitigated by the 4 set bonus if I can get those drops instead? Hmm.

In thinking through the solution I compared the 489 Tier 14 with the 489 Breastplate I was using and they are almost on par, with the current one (King’s Guard) a smidge ahead. This however does not include the benefit of adding either of the Tier bonuses themselves, which I’d argue makes the Tier Breastplate at 489 better.

By comparison the items show a clear difference, which is to be expected with 6 ilevels.

Left is the LFR T14 Chest, and the right column shows the 489 King’s Guard chest.

Overall gains of 62 Str, 590 Mastery, and 186 Haste vs the 694 Crit is the point of differentiation, as the Stamina and Armor is moot.

So then I thought to apply the stat weightings for Frost DKs via Wowhead. The goal was to see what difference for teh item alone was, in terms of marginal upgrade or significant upgrade.

This showed the combined weighting value of 156,784 pts for the T14 LFR Chest, and 161,280 for the 489 Chest; meaning a difference of only approx 3% in the two items. Ignoring that this is probably not the way to use item weightings (?) it shows that the LFR item is only a minor downgrade.

It also made me realise that even if I know what the weighting is for the items themselves, I do not have a dps value to compare too, as I cannot ratify a specific DPS figure increase against items level without a set of repeated simulations (like SimCraft). I don’t know a way to settle what the difference is. Fark.

Guess work tells me that if I do 80k dps on a fight, and the Tier adds 10% extra to 50% of my damage, that adds 4k dps from the Tier bonus, but it trades off a 3% difference in weighted stats due to the drop of 6 item levels.

I think the positioning and familiarity with a raid encounter will make far more than a 3% item level, or or 5k dps difference. Again it is assumptive.

So despite trying to be a bit clever, I don’t know.

A simple solution would be to upgrade (via Valor Points) the LFR Chest so that it is only two item levels “behind” and then I think the choice is easy. This costs 750 VPs which I am trying to save for upgrades to other gear.

Then again, it is unlikely that I will get a non-raid-finder T14 Chest token soon, but the cost also “wasted” if/when a T14 Normal drops.

Back in the days of Wrath Tier was good enough to be a go to item, but we didn’t have LFR level gear to contend with. We also didn’t have the flexibility to burn points on gear upgrades.

Asides…seems that a few questions have been raised too that I found while pondering the upgrade question.

Well I don’t think the initial post is using a range of data broad enough to make a true conclusion that Frost’s use of the T14-2 set is significantly stronger than Unholy, but its is not the only thread out there. Enough to factor into the choice of what gear to use, or to use it at all? Probably given that Unholy is behind Frost anyway, the folks who are after max dps are using Frost already.

(b) How much of the damage dealt and time spent is using the powers affected for 2H frost? Well SimCraft tells me that well over 50% of the damage dealt in an ideal fight is from OB and FS, which means that a boost by 10% to that damage is probably going to be significant.

That leans me toward using the Tier 2 set bonus.

(c) Is it OK that the Tier Chest is a bloody dress?

No its not. Not at all.

I transmog’ed them straight away. I know that the initial set of starting greens a DK gets includes a robe, but it also looks far more uniform and stylish than a chest item and robe which does not even match unto itself. The Tier 14 dress for Death Knights has a colour difference between the chest and skirt. FFS designers – drop less acid please.